Supernova sincerity: The real beauty in social networks
Not so long ago, the beginner model Jez Egger I launched the hashtag #truthbehindthisshot in my instagram. The essence of the challenge is that under each picture a girl told a story behind him. Here is a photo from model tests, under which she writes that on this day, the agency told her: her hips are too big and she ought to lose weight. Here is another typical professional picture - Jez says that her skin is retouched to squeak and that day she was not perfectly clean.
But the self-made two weeks ago, which clearly shows that the skin of the model is not like the polished version of "perfection". In the caption to the photo, she told that she had once spent at least an hour on make-up before leaving the house, and urged not to be shy about what we used to be considered flaws. These little details are great to help us understand what really gap is between reality and its "glossy" representation.
Today, far fewer people will shudder from the "imperfect styling" or uneven skin, on which the brushes of the Photoshop masters did not go
By the end of 2016, it is already obvious that we draw on our ideas about beauty from social networks: new models earn their popularity, cosmetic indie brands grow by leaps and bounds, and major market players are trying to keep up with them - it’s easier to earn the trust of the audience today. her directly. The authority of professional beauty periodicals as a source of expert opinions began to plummet with the advent of bloggers who did not hide their real skin in front of the lens. Here, for example, one of the most authoritative beauty blogger Lisa Eldridge does not hide her natural complexion (with all the irregularities) and shows everything on herself in a video tutorial on applying a tonal framework.
Excessive retouching and embellishment of reality, in principle, is no longer considered the norm: we have learned to notice in advertisements and magazine footage too smooth armpits and knees that have nothing to do with human anatomy. The bodipositive movement offered completely new variations on how to display the human body. Natural features that for various reasons were not included in the register of “beautiful” ones, it is not customary to hide and condemn it within its framework - and this is beginning to bear fruit. At least, today, far fewer people will wince from the "imperfect styling" or uneven skin, which the masters of Photoshop did not go through.
The incredible potential of instagram, facebook, toggle switch and other social networks is that anyone who has access to them can speak out and be heard (or seen) on these resources. Those who had something to tell about beauty and relationships with the body also appeared. At first, social networks were relatively free from beauty-marketing territory: five years ago, brands only groped for their opportunities, and official instagram advertising only appeared at all last year. One-dimensional images, which people, especially the younger generation, had already ceased to believe, did not penetrate there for some time, so it seemed that the aggressive imposition of unattainable ideals could be avoided.
Very quickly, Snapchat has become popular, brought celebrities and their admirers closer together - a silly app has smashed the image of a star, which even goes to bed in perfect makeup and is always beautiful in photos. Their photos without filters and makeup, it seems, showed everything, from Kim Kardashian to Renata Litvinova, and this trend was used even when creating the last Pirelli calendar. Beauty with a human face began to take much more willingly. The reality, however, makes its own adjustments: although the course for new sincerity in the field of physicality this year has finally taken shape, there are still questions about how it is understood and works.
On the one hand, all the most popular stories of this year are connected precisely with the struggle for the recognition of a "non-typical" appearance. The model with vitiligo Winnie Harlow regularly flashed on the news and took part in creating Beyonce’s Lemonade video album, in which, by the way, the topic “fuck your standard” was stated quite strongly - we will not forget the tune of Serena Williams. In a matter of days, Kaitlin Dobro, a beauty blogger with a disability, became popular, and the model Hoodia Diop noticed that there are still not enough girls with really dark skin in a big beauty industry. We have seen how a variety of beauty is being adopted not only by the Glossier, oriented towards the Millennials, or by the Dove that have already expressed their position on this matter. One of the most talked about viral videos was the H & M video about the fall collection. The brand’s clothes were supposed to be presented by various “real” women: different ages, builds and skin colors.
At the same time, even in such projects, girls with “socially acceptable” appearance still appear, and professionals are working on postulated carelessness and naturalness. It seems that so far frankness can exist solely on the verge of what is permitted: the same shooting of plus-size models is still accompanied by a large-scale retouching, one way or another designed to accurately adjust the proportions of the body to each other. Celebrities often resort to using filters and mobile editors before posting another photo - it seems to be known and understood by everyone. As a result, we see the best result of collective efforts, but we don’t think or know what is behind these efforts.
Social networks and online publications are not too far from the antediluvian ideas of gloss
This situation has developed precisely in the era of social networks: considering beauty shooting in paper or online publications, we are still aware of how much work was spent on getting just such a result, and therefore are not ready to take everything at face value and immediately compare yourself with the models. A homemade self, it seems, implies the absence of stylists and makeup artists, proper preparation, careful disguise of “excess” and other things common for the production of complex commercial shoots and covers.
In fact, since self turned into a separate genre, which acquired special rituals and paraphernalia. Lamps and tripods, makeup techniques, sharpened specifically for close shooting in perspective ра, secrets of celebrity and cosmetic brands - and there’s no end to it. The same contouring that many bloggers and makeup artists, professing a less demanding approach to beauty, do not accept. The problem here is not in the technology itself, which has vast potential in terms of methods of application, but in the fact that it is at the forefront of creating the notorious "better version of itself." It turns out that social networks and online publications did not go too far from the antediluvian views of the gloss and the "female press".
On the other hand, there is progress in the fact that we have a choice: we can talk about an amazing variety of characters and approaches, literally for every taste. You can leave either Kylie Jenner or the spectacular Jeffrey Star, in your feed, you can subscribe to Sarah Puhto's honest fitness instagram, or follow the updates to your Lonely bodipressive underwear brand. Warnings that spending time online has a negative effect on self-esteem may be true for a long time in general terms, but there is another view. It is impossible not to notice a healthy trend: today, a variety of ideas find their fans - and no one can forbid you to look for alternative sources of inspiration.
Cover: Lonely
